So They Say

Robert H. Mounce

• Publisher: Resource Publications
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9781498201667
• eBook ISBN: 9781498201674
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Literary Criticism

A good quotation states an insight so shrewdly that not only do you get it, but you can't seem to forget it. It loves to make you slow down and savor truth. These neat little extended metaphors deserve to be heard, examined, and challenged. Quotations present truth in capsule form. Many reflect the wisdom of earlier times; others bring insights that are fresh and contemporary. Some support the status quo; others challenge it. So They Say is a collection of more than seventy quotes, along with author Robert Mounce's reflections on how they relate to the real world. This interaction turns out to be a battle of worldviews, for as Mounce explains, he could never embrace philosophical materialism because his experience of reality demands something outside of "stuff"--he wants to know where the DNA of the very first living cell came from, and he dissects each quotation accordingly. By approaching each quotation from this supernaturalist point of view, Mounce's So They Say invites you to read, reflect, and enjoy the journey.

Index of subjects

Aesthetic, 46–47

Authority, 9, 21

Belief system, 16

Bureaucracy, 8, 21–22

Catastrophe, 41, 54

Cause and effect, 52, 76, 91

Character, 46, 96, 103–104, 111, 117

Comedy, 57–58

Consensus, 13, 28

Consequences, 29, 34, 64–65, 76, 91, 104

Conservatism, 47

Contentment, 31–32, 38, 48–49

Context, 13, 19–20, 41, 89, 98, 105, 111, 127, 140

Death, 40, 68, 111, 113, 121

Debt, 8, 73, 77, 101, 107–108

Direction, 17, 23–24, 43, 75–76, 79, 83, 101–102, 105, 121

Doubt, 6–7, 122, 135

Education, 4–5, 21, 41, 54

Exaggeration, 36

Faith, 6–7, 16–17, 33–34, 50, 55, 67–68, 89, 108, 110, 121–122, 125­–126

Feeling, 35, 56–57

Freedom, 15, 21, 54, 91­–93

Friendship, 26–27, 39, 109, 134–135

Generalities, 41, 118–11...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Preface
• How do you prove what doesn’t exist?
• Simplicity, the ultimate sophistication
• Why higher education got lower
• Can you doubt faith but not doubt doubt?
• Why big is not better
• Don’t waste the irreplaceable
• Is it summer or winter inside?
• Does the Spirit still inspire?
• Is faith irrational?
• Can “force” reveal itself?
• Are there mountains too high to climb?
• Progress versus expansion
• Where do you want to go?
• The art of kissing
• The sine qua non of friendship
• Careful with words!
• How to prevent the inevitable
• To fix or not to fix?
• The indirect path to contentment
• The highest form of ignorance
• How do you feel?
• Keep it simple!
• Good old days
• Treasure that lasts
• How to handle perplexity
• Is your goal achievable?
• Do I have a right to what is yours?
• Do habits help?
• Why are you happy?
• Why call a judge “The Honorable So and So?”
• How pygmies become giants
• Avoiding the unavoidable
• The magic of music
• Why we are like we are
• The playful nature of humor
• Are you the person I’m talking to?
• Why are you less important than me?
• The corrupting influence of power
• Is God a comedian?
• “It’s not that simple”
• Humor, the best medicine
• The can can’t be kicked without a kicker
• Leaders make it happen
• A problem only congress can’t see
• It’s too early to get old
• Jesus, deluded or divine?
• Leaving logic, where do we go?
• Losing what you don’t have
• Will human nature ever change?
• Why less is more
• We need to be logical about logic
• Remove morality and freedom disappears
• Morality and freedom, inseparable twins
• Riding bareback through life
• Every law is a moral statement
• Science and poetry, friends after all
• Life’s most practical GPS
• Is our bright future behind us?
• Who is responsible for you?
• When greed is good
• The ultimate source of happiness
• QBs gone west
• The timeless nature of a good quote
• Time, the irreplaceable commodity
• Truth, the first casualty in war
• The Value of Work
• Are we a dying society?
• Leadership, always leaning left
• Why I believe in God
• Seeing what isn’t there . . . yet
• Is there someone “outside the barrel?”
• It’s called “semantic range”
• Why we are like we are
• Be wise about what you know
• Power, the political aphrodisiac
• Friendship, the result of sharing
• Index of subjects
• People quoted